North Korea in 1998

Chief of state: Chairman of the National Defense Commission Kim Jong Il

Head of government: Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) Hong Sang Nam

In September 1998, exactly 50 years after Kim Il Sung founded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, his son Kim Jong Il formally assumed the nation’s highest post, completing a transition that had begun with the elder Kim’s death in July 1994. Kim Jong Il did not become president, however. That position was written out of North Korea’s constitution by the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), which reserved for Kim Il Sung the posthumous title of "eternal president." Instead, the younger Kim was reelected chairman of the National Defense Commission (NDC), an office whose powers the SPA expanded to make it "the highest post of the state." Kim had assumed leadership of the ruling Korean Workers (Communist) Party in October 1997.

The reelection of Kim as NDC chairman came hard on the heels of a major controversy in foreign affairs. On August 31 North Korea launched a two-stage rocket over Japan. The international reaction to North Korea’s claim that the rocket was not meant to test a missile but rather to carry a satellite into orbit was deeply skeptical, since the North was known to have ballistic missiles under development and had admitted selling missiles to such countries as Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Protesting the rocket’s path across its territory, Japan cut its food shipments to the North. Although the U.S. later conceded that the evidence suggested a satellite launch, it also pointed out that the rocket used solid-fuel technology, which indicated a major step forward in long-range-missile development for North Korea.

The country’s nuclear weapons program was supposed to have remained frozen as part of a deal negotiated with the U.S. in 1994, in which the North had agreed to halt its program in exchange for two civilian nuclear reactors and fuel oil. Photographs from U.S. spy satellites, however, purportedly showed work proceeding on an underground nuclear facility near Yongbyon. Reports of the facility persuaded the U.S. Congress to stop supplying fuel oil to North Korea. Pres. Bill Clinton, however, used his authority to divert $15 million from special funds in order to fulfill the U.S. commitment to the accord. North Korea steadfastly denied reports of the underground facility, calling them part of a smear campaign by the U.S. and South Korea. Pyongyang denied a U.S. delegation access to the Yongbyon facility in mid-November, and by December there was fear that the entire agreement might be breaking down.

During 1998 North Korea’s economy continued to stagnate. Numerous international relief agencies testified to continuing widespread hunger. Médecins sans Frontières, the largest humanitarian relief organization working in North Korea, pulled out of the country in late September after the government would not allow the organization to monitor the distribution of food.